How much can a Disco pull?

Just wondering, using a 97 Disco 300tdi auto, witter universal jaw/pin/ball hitch.
If i put a chain on the pin and attach it to something without wheels, ie ploughs, harrows, etc. what weight can the disco pull/drag?
anyone know what weight Red devon soil is and how much extra weight it would add per cubic foot?

If I over-do it, what would snap first, the hitch? the gearbox? halfshafts?

Years ago when I worked on farms in Kent there was a farmer who used a dihatsu 4track to pull a single furrow run around plough, he said his tractor broke down and his car pulled the plough just fine lol

a disco does have a towing limit of 3500kgs, really wouldn't want to be working it hard in a field, just not made to do that anymore

until your tyres slip, traction is everything

Example had 20ton of hay (round bales) on 4 hay wagons,( hooked up like a train) Ex-wife tried to drive it out of the field soft sand in HI range 4x4 lost traction just about stuck it. I stopped her, got in back them up about 8' and then put it in low range 4x4 and drove it out of the field.

Its very much a suck it and see question , as it will depend on too many variables for a straight answer . Depending on how hard it is working , and how much attention you pay to the trans O/Heat warning will most likely decide how long you can do it for .
Chain harrow easy enough scarifier a bit harder, plough type of soil , depth, how dry it is , what type of tyres you got on etc etc . HTSH

PS have towed 58 tonne with my defender CSW , but was on road , and did it easy , 44 tonne uphill in snow was a lot harder

it will pull a fair bit ,youd should be able to stall engine without harming drive train ,harrows wont take much pulling ,think youd struggle to go slow enough with revs needed for pulling a plough,your main worry would be rot in the chassis,we used to use a series 3 regular similarly

the 3.5 tonne is the legal limit for towing on the roads with a normal "car" can overrun brakes, more than that and the vehicle has to have a Gross weight in excess of 3.5T itself, and independant brakes (its also the max load on a standard ball IIRC)

seeing as we are talking of road, stick it in low box and yll be fine, IIRC the defender or the same drivetrain can tow 7.5T with air brake systems fitted for the trailer.

Traction shouldn't be a problem, I have a set of Grabber UHP road tyres on it At the mo, but have a part worn set of Grabber AT2 and a new set of Kingpin Amazon if needed.

thinking about it, i think it'll be either wheelspin on the grass or overheating the torque converter that'll put pay to my plans.
either that or my welding on the implement blades!

...farming on a shoe-string ...and my laces are broke!

RoyalPythons said:

Traction shouldn't be a problem, I have a set of Grabber UHP road tyres on it At the mo, but have a part worn set of Grabber AT2 and a new set of Kingpin Amazon if needed.

thinking about it, i think it'll be either wheelspin on the grass or overheating the torque converter that'll put pay to my plans.
either that or my welding on the implement blades!

...farming on a shoe-string ...and my laces are broke!

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Have you see a tractors drive tyres do your look the same? and have you see unimog agriculture truck with there tyres

As said above, you'll spin the wheels before anything happens... Might be lucky to get moving before they start spinning though.

There's probably more traction on just one wheel of a half decent sized tractor than all four wheels of a defender with mud tyres!


I reckon you'd be lucky to be able to even drag something close to the legal towing limit for the road in a field to be honest depending on what sort of thing your trying to drag and its hold it will have on the ground.

We pull our 15ton steam roller out of the shed with our manual TDI discos regularly, that is on concrete and slightly up hill. I think you weak link might be the auto gearbox only because it might not transfer the power to the wheels.

Are we comparing apples and pears though?

Weight isn't all that relevant with the implements you mention, but ground conditions - a 'Strong Man' can pull a 38t artic on flat tarmac.

I very much doubt you'd damage the disco tugging anything around a field unless you did it for a particularly sustained period in dry conditions with very grippy rubber, and even then without additional weight in the truck it should just break traction.

Tom

if there the same as my fender combined weight is 7000 kg

I regularly drag REALLY heavy stuff about the yard with my disco.

(have even bump started a fully loaded 44 tonne artic grain lorry)

I think your biggest problem is the auto gearbox. I reckon your torque converter will give out before anything else.